By David Dent
The Christmas anthology film is starting to become a bit of a thing. In the last couple of years alone we’ve had ‘Deathcember’, ‘All the Creatures Were Stirring’, ‘Unholy Night’ and ‘Happy Horror Days.’ See what I mean?
In the latest offering, from producer/director P J Starks’ Blood Moon Pictures, we have, as the title suggests, thirteen stories told by a group of disparate guys sitting in a bar on Christmas Eve (although as we find out later the group are connected in a rather shocking way).
The stories told, as always in this kind of thing, vary in quality; most offer an O. Henry style twist. Highlights include: ‘Like a Family’; ‘The Devil’s Due’; ‘It’s a Wonderful Death’, ‘The Scareionette’ ‘Dead Air’ and ‘The Killer Caribou’.
There are about the same ratio of hits to misses in ’13 Slays Till Xmas’ but on the whole I enjoyed this more than I was expecting, Blood Moon Pictures movies not exactly being a guarantee of quality.
The overall tone is consistent and none of the stories outstay their welcome (often a problem when assembling shorts together). Good work.
13 Slays Till Xmas is available now from Scream Team Releasing.
